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Just a thought, SES bonuses aside, wouldn't it have been a better motivator if, rather than a firm cap per person, agencies were limited to use no more than 1% of their personnel budgets for bonuses? The dollar amount would be the same, but this would have allowed agencies to give some folks more than one percent and most folks less. A one percent bonus, after taxes, is not much of an incentive, especially when the difference between a stellar perfomer and a dud is just a couple hundred dollars. Don't get me wrong, I'll take the couple hundred, but why work extra hours every day, and respond to e-mail all weekend for a couple hundred more per year than the dud who doesn't?

These have always been a big joke regardless of how management tries to make them based on job ratings. Managers always walk away with lots of money because they get cash awards at odd times of the year, not just at performance appraisal time. Same with rank and file workers who are the "pets." They get time off awards, cash awards, on the spot awards, etc., throughout the year and, in the case of my office, because they tended to a boss' personal needs outside the office when the boss was undergoing cancer treatments. SES bonuses are ridiculous. An SESer in my office fell out of favor with the grand powers but still got 10-15K bonuses every year. What's a fix? No bonuses for managers and SESers. Give the available award money to the rank and file workers who do all the work and keep the place running anyway.

Marien, I don't know what level of management you are talking about but it certainly isn't front line. Front line managers have an excessive workload and responsibility to keep morale up even with all these cuts. What incentive is there for anyone to knock themselves out? I don't know who gets 10-15K bonuses every year but its certainly not front line managers? So when you speak of these things, please be clear as to the level of management you are referring to. With paybanding, front line managers for the most part have been in a pay freeze since the onset of paybanding. The burden gets heavier and the paychecks get lighter.